Vanderbilt should not allow racism and antisemitism. Period.

I should not engage with this obvious bait, but you got me.

Your depiction of events is knowingly dishonest and in bad faith.

Assault? Come on, seriously?

Peeing in bottles? They were denied access to the bathroom’s inside the building and continued their sit in.

You know better, you’re just upset they took drastic means of protest that disagrees with your agenda.

The priority is ending the war, not owning the other side with circular rhetoric.

Jordan Esrig’s letter is a masterclass in missing the point. By dismissing the Kirkland Hall sit-in as lacking “intellectual value,” Esrig not only undermines the rich history of student activism but also trivializes the very real concerns driving these protests. The characterization of the students’ actions as “mob-like activism” is a lazy and transparent attempt to discredit a movement he disagrees with, rather than engaging with its substance.

Esrig’s condescending tone peaks when he questions the students’ focus on the Israel-Palestine conflict due to their geographic location. This line of reasoning is absurdly provincial. By Esrig’s logic, we should all turn a blind eye to global injustices unless they’re happening in our backyard. Students raising their voices against perceived injustices—whether local or international—are exercising a global civic responsibility, not engaging in misguided activism.

Then you look at Esrig’s portrayal of the protesters’ actions—assaulting an officer, urination, and vandalism—it’s manipulatively selective. Focusing on these aspects without context is a classic move to delegitimize the protesters’ broader message. It’s important to note that the first and last accusations have not been proven in court, and the second was a direct result of students being denied access to basic facilities. If not bottles, where else were they to urinate? And let’s address his use of quotation marks around “upholding genocide” and the dismissive way he mentions tokenizing Jewish students. Jordan’s insensitivity to the gravity of these issues is glaring. By mocking their concerns and reducing their activism to mere attention-seeking he’s not just being pretentious; he is actively contributing to the silencing of important conversations about human rights and justice. His suggestion that Vanderbilt should steer students away from activism and towards “more substantive forms of discourse” is both patronizing and dangerous. Esrig seems to prefer a sanitized academic environment where students are seen but not heard, which flies in the face of the university’s role as a place for critical thought and societal progress.

All in all, Esrig’s letter is a cocktail of condescension, detachment, and a disturbing desire to police the bounds of acceptable protest. Instead of engaging with the protesters’ message, he chooses to belittle and dismiss them. This isn’t just unhelpful; it goes against the very principles of academic freedom and student engagement that universities should champion. The students involved in these protests are not naive troublemakers; they’re engaged citizens and critical thinkers challenging the status quo—and they deserve to be treated with respect, not disdain.

Considering the broader context of Jordan’s other writings and prior antics in VCR, it’s pretty clear that this letter isn’t an isolated incident but part of a larger pattern of spewing out poorly researched and heavily biased work. I have a lot more thoughts but I’ll leave you with one piece of advice Jordan, for the sake of our sanity and your dignity, don’t touch a keyboard again.

I agree. The Israel-Hamas fight is polarizing, and I understand emotions are high. However, strongly identifying with one side or the other is to ignore many of the problematic events on both sides of this long-standing conflict.

The focus at Vanderbilt should be on students preparing to make a difference in the world, not students virtue signaling from afar.